Accreditation Kick-off Party on Thursday November 7^th

Obtaining a three year accreditation certificate from CARF after the Site Survey in April 2004 will provide us with proof that we are providing quality services for the people we support, helping us maintain and strengthen our mission statement of "Working for a community for all".

Committee Structure

Working towards accreditation will be a collaborative process and will include input from many of our stakeholders.  We are tackling this huge task by dividing into small working committees made up of people we support, staff, managers, family members, funders, volunteers and others. Not the easiest way, but the most collaborative, which the NSDRC is famous for.

We have 18 members on our CARF Accreditation Committee, an advisory group of stakeholders who will meet on a quarterly basis to keep us accountable, steer the process and provide advice.  Close to 50 people made up of Line Workers,  Program Managers, Persons we Support,  Directors, Social Workers, Board Members,  Parents and Community Members make up the six sub-committees – Organizational Quality, Quality Outcomes, Children and Youth, Community Living, Personal and Social, and Communication.   The Communication Committee is the primary communication resource for the accreditation process, the other five committees are responsible for meeting CARF standards specific to their program areas.

CARF Days

Each of the committees has met more than once and are busy completing Preparation Guides for the accreditation process.  By January we will begin working on the 154 standards we have to meet.  The third Thursday of each month will be dedicated as a “CARF Day” for working on accreditation.  The first one on November 28th was a great success!  Despite the approaching holiday season, we will have a second one on December 19th and so on until our site survey in April 2004.

Despite accreditation being a requirement for the Ministry of Children and Family Development (our principal funder), we are very excited about the outcome the accreditation process will have for the agency.  Already, we have many groups of people involved and excited.  In fact after our Kick-Off Party, we had many people come forward asking to be on one of the many working committees.  It is wonderful to see mixed groups of staff, management, people we support, volunteers, parents and others all meeting to talk about the agency, our services and how we can make them even better.  How can the outcome be anything but fantastic?  We’re going to have a lot of fun getting there too!

Call if you have questions! 

Look for an Accreditation quiz and prizes coming in the next bulletin in February!!